M Tinsley
Biographic Data
| ID | 48486 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M Tinsley |
| GIVEN NAMES | M |
| FAMILY NAME | Tinsley |
| SIGNATURE | TINSLEY M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Manchester |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2628-5783 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 43 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Setting Empire in Stone: Commemoration and the Crisis of Historical Subjectivity
The global wave of anti-racist social movements in the summer of 2020 was marked by calls for the removal or recontextualization of statues in public space. Conservative politicians and pundits, in turn, framed cultural activism as a “culture war” and a crisis that entailed “erasing history” by calling national heroes into question. I argue that framing the toppling of statues as a historical crisis derives from a colonial understanding of knowle…
Contested urban assemblages: Ruination and Restoration of Postcolonial Sites of Memory
Recent work on ruination has explored the capacity of ruins to embody multiple and contradictory meanings within a single site. This paper considers the capacity of ruined sites of memory to disrupt the relationship between past and present, celebration and shame, Self and Other. Ruins produce new expressions of time and space that transcend the intentions of either architect or spectator. Restoration, however, may attempt to overwrite this ambiv…
The Struggle for the People's King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement
Toppling statues and making space: Prospects for Anti-Racist Cultural Activism
Statues have long been recognized as impositions of a particular past that legitimize a power-laden present. Consequently, toppling statues, and engaging with the space they once occupied, opens up the possibility of new and multiple narratives. This article takes this moment of possibility as its starting point. Drawing from nine case studies in five countries, and from thirty-one interviews with cultural activists and other stakeholders, we ide…
The edges of critique: Thinking with A Critical Synergy
‘The opposite of nationalism’? Rethinking patriotism in US political discourse
Patriotism frequently is framed as an individualised expression of affinity for a civic polity and a counterweight to ethnocultural nationalism. Yet the term is invoked by theorists and practitioners to denote a broad, often contradictory range of values. This paper argues that this is not simply semantic slippage, but a reflection of the exclusionary character of patriotism. Taking as data the full range of speeches delivered at the 2016 Democra…
Decolonizing Memory: Algeria and the Politics of Testimony
With her first book, Jill Jarvis has intervened in longstanding, interdisciplinary debates about the history and memory of the French Empire. She argues, convincingly, that the scope of colonial violence in Algeria is such that it cannot be encapsulated either by legal arguments or by official histories. Rather, Jarvis turns to literature to make sense of the otherwise unspeakable. Doing so enables her to displace hegemonic memories, foregroundin…
Towards a Postcolonial Critical Realism
This article proposes postcolonial critical realism (PCR) as an ontological framework that explains the structuring relationship between racialized, colonial discourses and the social world. Beginning with the case study of the global climate crisis, it considers how scholars and activists have made sense of the present crisis, and how their discourses reflect and reproduce the climate crisis at large. To theorize the relationship between raciali…
Revisiting nostalgia: Imperialism, Anticolonialism, and Imagining Home
The present surge in imperial nostalgia in Britain has been widely remarked and critiqued. This article considers the relationship between imperialism and nostalgia, from their historical interconnectedness to their potential decoupling. I conceptualize nostalgia as the recognition of a gulf between past and present, the judgment that the past was somehow preferable to the present, and the longing for a "home" in which there is no longing for any…
Memory and melancholia in the garden of tropical agronomy
This article traces the processes of celebrating, forgetting, and reimagining the French Empire at the garden of tropical agronomy in Nogent-sur-Marne. Drawing from archival research, semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, and site observation, I consider why ruination has endured despite ongoing attempts to restore the site, and what is at stake in remembering the garden anew. Drawing from theories of national memory and postcolonial theo…
Decolonizing the civic/ethnic binary
The founding works of nationalism theory identify two overarching categories of nationalism: civic and ethnic. While the former is lauded as liberal, inclusive, and rational, the latter is derided as regressive, restrictive, and exclusionary. More recent work on nationalism has problematized these characterizations, but has largely retained the civic/ethnic binary. This article critiques the civic/ethnic binary from the perspective of postcolonia…
War, Collective Memory, and Identity
Collective memory is the understanding of the past developed and shared by members of a nation, religion, or ethnic group in the present. It may be used either to legitimize existing configurations of power or to challenge the dominant understanding of the nation. These dynamics are apparent in the collective memory of war: the way a nation remembers a particular war both reveals and shapes its sense of self. Within a nation, marginalized groups …
Proclaiming Independence: Language and National Identity in Sékou Touré's Guinea
Language is both a means of constructing collective identity and an expression of collective identity in itself. The implications for postcolonial societies are considerable: as long as a colonial language is privileged over its indigenous counterparts in the public sphere, a country remains under the de facto control of the former coloniser. This article engages with the struggle to decolonise language in postcolonial Guinea under Sékou Touré, f…
We Will Re‐Member Them’: Muslims in the Great War Semi‐Centenary
In A ugust 1964, the semi‐centenary of the First World War's onset coincided with uncertainty about Britain's future: decolonization had resulted in a diminished role in the international sphere, and migration had begun to alter the dominant ethnic and religious character of the metropolis. Britons increasingly confronted the question of what it meant to belong to the postcolonial nation. In this context, First World War commemorations served a t…
Decolonizing the civic/ethnic binary
The founding works of nationalism theory identify two overarching categories of nationalism: civic and ethnic. While the former is lauded as liberal, inclusive, and rational, the latter is derided as regressive, restrictive, and exclusionary. More recent work on nationalism has problematized these characterizations, but has largely retained the civic/ethnic binary. This article critiques the civic/ethnic binary from the perspective of postcolonia…
Towards a Postcolonial Critical Realism
This article proposes postcolonial critical realism (PCR) as an ontological framework that explains the structuring relationship between racialized, colonial discourses and the social world. Beginning with the case study of the global climate crisis, it considers how scholars and activists have made sense of the present crisis, and how their discourses reflect and reproduce the climate crisis at large. To theorize the relationship between raciali…
Revisiting nostalgia: Imperialism, Anticolonialism, and Imagining Home
The present surge in imperial nostalgia in Britain has been widely remarked and critiqued. This article considers the relationship between imperialism and nostalgia, from their historical interconnectedness to their potential decoupling. I conceptualize nostalgia as the recognition of a gulf between past and present, the judgment that the past was somehow preferable to the present, and the longing for a "home" in which there is no longing for any…
Contested urban assemblages: Ruination and Restoration of Postcolonial Sites of Memory
Recent work on ruination has explored the capacity of ruins to embody multiple and contradictory meanings within a single site. This paper considers the capacity of ruined sites of memory to disrupt the relationship between past and present, celebration and shame, Self and Other. Ruins produce new expressions of time and space that transcend the intentions of either architect or spectator. Restoration, however, may attempt to overwrite this ambiv…
Toppling statues and making space: Prospects for Anti-Racist Cultural Activism
Statues have long been recognized as impositions of a particular past that legitimize a power-laden present. Consequently, toppling statues, and engaging with the space they once occupied, opens up the possibility of new and multiple narratives. This article takes this moment of possibility as its starting point. Drawing from nine case studies in five countries, and from thirty-one interviews with cultural activists and other stakeholders, we ide…
The edges of critique: Thinking with A Critical Synergy
Memory and melancholia in the garden of tropical agronomy
This article traces the processes of celebrating, forgetting, and reimagining the French Empire at the garden of tropical agronomy in Nogent-sur-Marne. Drawing from archival research, semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, and site observation, I consider why ruination has endured despite ongoing attempts to restore the site, and what is at stake in remembering the garden anew. Drawing from theories of national memory and postcolonial theo…
We Will Re‐Member Them’: Muslims in the Great War Semi‐Centenary
In A ugust 1964, the semi‐centenary of the First World War's onset coincided with uncertainty about Britain's future: decolonization had resulted in a diminished role in the international sphere, and migration had begun to alter the dominant ethnic and religious character of the metropolis. Britons increasingly confronted the question of what it meant to belong to the postcolonial nation. In this context, First World War commemorations served a t…
War, Collective Memory, and Identity
Collective memory is the understanding of the past developed and shared by members of a nation, religion, or ethnic group in the present. It may be used either to legitimize existing configurations of power or to challenge the dominant understanding of the nation. These dynamics are apparent in the collective memory of war: the way a nation remembers a particular war both reveals and shapes its sense of self. Within a nation, marginalized groups …
Proclaiming Independence: Language and National Identity in Sékou Touré's Guinea
Language is both a means of constructing collective identity and an expression of collective identity in itself. The implications for postcolonial societies are considerable: as long as a colonial language is privileged over its indigenous counterparts in the public sphere, a country remains under the de facto control of the former coloniser. This article engages with the struggle to decolonise language in postcolonial Guinea under Sékou Touré, f…
Memory and melancholia in the garden of tropical agronomy
This article traces the processes of celebrating, forgetting, and reimagining the French Empire at the garden of tropical agronomy in Nogent-sur-Marne. Drawing from archival research, semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, and site observation, I consider why ruination has endured despite ongoing attempts to restore the site, and what is at stake in remembering the garden anew. Drawing from theories of national memory and postcolonial theo…
Decolonizing the civic/ethnic binary
The founding works of nationalism theory identify two overarching categories of nationalism: civic and ethnic. While the former is lauded as liberal, inclusive, and rational, the latter is derided as regressive, restrictive, and exclusionary. More recent work on nationalism has problematized these characterizations, but has largely retained the civic/ethnic binary. This article critiques the civic/ethnic binary from the perspective of postcolonia…
Revisiting nostalgia: Imperialism, Anticolonialism, and Imagining Home
The present surge in imperial nostalgia in Britain has been widely remarked and critiqued. This article considers the relationship between imperialism and nostalgia, from their historical interconnectedness to their potential decoupling. I conceptualize nostalgia as the recognition of a gulf between past and present, the judgment that the past was somehow preferable to the present, and the longing for a "home" in which there is no longing for any…
‘The opposite of nationalism’? Rethinking patriotism in US political discourse
Patriotism frequently is framed as an individualised expression of affinity for a civic polity and a counterweight to ethnocultural nationalism. Yet the term is invoked by theorists and practitioners to denote a broad, often contradictory range of values. This paper argues that this is not simply semantic slippage, but a reflection of the exclusionary character of patriotism. Taking as data the full range of speeches delivered at the 2016 Democra…
Decolonizing Memory: Algeria and the Politics of Testimony
With her first book, Jill Jarvis has intervened in longstanding, interdisciplinary debates about the history and memory of the French Empire. She argues, convincingly, that the scope of colonial violence in Algeria is such that it cannot be encapsulated either by legal arguments or by official histories. Rather, Jarvis turns to literature to make sense of the otherwise unspeakable. Doing so enables her to displace hegemonic memories, foregroundin…
Towards a Postcolonial Critical Realism
This article proposes postcolonial critical realism (PCR) as an ontological framework that explains the structuring relationship between racialized, colonial discourses and the social world. Beginning with the case study of the global climate crisis, it considers how scholars and activists have made sense of the present crisis, and how their discourses reflect and reproduce the climate crisis at large. To theorize the relationship between raciali…
The Struggle for the People's King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement
Toppling statues and making space: Prospects for Anti-Racist Cultural Activism
Statues have long been recognized as impositions of a particular past that legitimize a power-laden present. Consequently, toppling statues, and engaging with the space they once occupied, opens up the possibility of new and multiple narratives. This article takes this moment of possibility as its starting point. Drawing from nine case studies in five countries, and from thirty-one interviews with cultural activists and other stakeholders, we ide…
The edges of critique: Thinking with A Critical Synergy
Contested urban assemblages: Ruination and Restoration of Postcolonial Sites of Memory
Recent work on ruination has explored the capacity of ruins to embody multiple and contradictory meanings within a single site. This paper considers the capacity of ruined sites of memory to disrupt the relationship between past and present, celebration and shame, Self and Other. Ruins produce new expressions of time and space that transcend the intentions of either architect or spectator. Restoration, however, may attempt to overwrite this ambiv…
Setting Empire in Stone: Commemoration and the Crisis of Historical Subjectivity
The global wave of anti-racist social movements in the summer of 2020 was marked by calls for the removal or recontextualization of statues in public space. Conservative politicians and pundits, in turn, framed cultural activism as a “culture war” and a crisis that entailed “erasing history” by calling national heroes into question. I argue that framing the toppling of statues as a historical crisis derives from a colonial understanding of knowle…
Sociology (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Law (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Aesthetics (8 works) · Art (7 works) · Colonialism (5 works) · History (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Empire (4 works)